Kaori Nakamura - Marine Dream
Kaori Nakamura - Marine Dream (2007)
Takeshobo
Catalogue - TSDV-41145 - Region 2 Disc
The Skinny: Kaori is a relative newcomer. She has a couple of beach volleyball DVD titles on her resume, but this looks like her first Gravure Idol DVD. With or without a lengthy list of credits, she’s still a beautiful woman.
This DVD opens with a montage as is the standard these days. Unfortunately, this is immediately followed by an introduction/interview. It’s not that I dislike the interviews. Instead think of this: we don’t hear the questions, instead we read the questions as they presented on the screen.
Following this we follow a cute little sand crab as he makes his away past a sleeping Kaori. This is immediately abandoned. But more on this later.
We find Kaori in a rundown deserted building. She stands there. The camera never stops its motions. Eventually she begins to walk about this derelict building: we follow. Someone should alert the director that the continuous motion of the camera is not only distracting but makes for more work required by the viewers.
Then to create further confusion, they repeatedly inter-cut the same location shoot with the dress on and then off, over and over.
Next location is the jungle near the beach. Kaori wears a white bikini top and a red sarong. The music is a flamenco based melody with constantly clicking castanets.
Kaori makes her way through the jungle to the beach, She will unwrap the sarong, as the next music track, a samba tune plays on the music track. We never do get a real good look at Kaori (they way we’d like) as the camera captures the sarong flowing in the breezes, and the trees. Again the director over uses the camera in motion concept.
A second beach scene follows. The white bikini has become a yellow bikini. We get a slew of waist up shots, or head shots. Then some facial closeups. It’s like he’s going out of his way to avoid pointing his camera at the model bosom or her butt. When he does show you her boobs or butt is just a fleeting glimpse.
Then at the 21:30 mark, he returns to the interview. In the interview sequence, the camera is steady - mounted on a tripod - so there’s none of the annoying motion that bedeviled us earlier.
The next day it rains so we get Kaori in a red silk slip posing by the window, then seated on a wicker chair, then lying on the tiled table. There’s no denying that Kaori is indeed beautiful, but the scene is peppered with illogical edits, and yes, still more of the aggravating motion.
A scene at a marina follows. Kaori wears a bikini that has a white with blue trim top and blue with white trim for the panties. She looks good in this bikini and do the close quarters of being on narrow jetty, or actually on sailboat, there’s a lot less motion by the camera. It is in this sequence that I become a ware that this DVD is shot in Guam. I picked it up off the identifying name and location on a boat.
How about a trip for some target shooting? First a handgun, then a rifle. Turns out that Kaori is quite a shot. It’s nothing visually for a gravure idol DVD, but hey - Kaori enjoyed herself.
Next - The White Room! Kaori in a white outfit, white linen sheets and pillowcases, and lots of daylight streaming into the room - so much so that the room is basically whited out. But she does look grand in this scene.
Another white scene follows. This time it is a bathtub - but this time Kaori is in a red bikini. The other color in the scene is the plate of green grapes. She will also employ the shower by means of the hand held shower head. Again Kaori looks superb.
Just when you thought we were done with the tiny crab creature and the interview - they both return again for a 3rd segment each. At this point we are 44 plus minutes into - still have 25 minutes remaining.
An exercise segment follows. Kaori looks superb in tight Speedo tank suit. We can see that she is very limber and flexible. Despite how nice the model looks; basically they should have rescheduled on a day where you could see the distinction between the sky and the sea. Instead we get a solid backdrop in which we can see neither sky not sea.
Next we have Kaori out by the pool in the evening. She’s wearing a blue dress and the underwater lights below surface in the pool make the scene very attractive with reflections flickering on the side of the building.
When the camera comes in closer, we see that she is not wearing a blue dress - really it is a see-through blue slip and she’s got a black bikini on beneath.
Eventually the blue slip ends up somewhere and Ms Nakamura is in the pool. The reflections make for a pretty picture. Unfortunately she’s pretty much inactive in the pool. The few shots that attempt to don’t show much of her body - instead they concentrate on her face, which remains decidedly impassive.
Maybe they called it an attitude of a sort. Thankfully the model’s beauty trumps this attitude or lack of expression.
Kaori has room service next. Looks like a club sandwich with Mayo on the side plus a lengthy amount of time to drink a third of a glass of milk. After the repast, Kaori will brush her teeth and this too is stretched out. Seems like they wanted 71 minutes but had to toss in some filler. They finish the scene with Kaori out for a walk on the patio.
Speaking of filler, Kaori watches this cute little sand crab periodically throughout the DVD. Cute may not be the operative word for a tiny crab - who is about the size of a finger tip. He trundles along carrying his house with him. In any event Kaori was captivated by him. That along with repetitive moments when Kaori awakens from sleep may account for the title - Marine Dream.
Summary: A beautiful model who is whisked off to Guam to look pretty and not do too much. The video has lighting issues, overly active camera movements, a certain sameness of expression, and entirely too much time is spent looking at Kaori’s face which would have been fine had they allowed her to be more expressive.
To see the real Kaori, you must watch her closely during the interviews and then enjoy her brightness and high spirits in the behind the scenes segment and making of segment.
I think this DVD was released or as the credits say, presented by Takeshobo. The production was handled by Ace Deuce Code. Takeshobo’s normal production values were definitely missing.
Unfortunately this means that Ms Nakamura’s beauty is not in and of itself enough to overcome the DVD’s deficiencies. Three point two five is the rating. I will state that I’d love the opportunity to review her next DVD.
A clip from the DVD brought to you by cdjapan:
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/idol/essentials/promotion/details.html?key=TSDV-41145